This startup can keep fruit fresh for weeks longer

Hazel's FruitBrite and BerryBrite extend the shelf life of fresh fruit

Here's a bit of kitchen science: Put a banana, tomato or apple in a paper bag, and it'll ripen faster. That's because the bag traps ethylene, a gas given off by some fruit that hastens ripening. FruitBrite does the opposite. The time-release sachet, produced by a South Side startup, Hazel Technologies, contains an ethylene blocker that creates a Dorian Gray effect.

Other fruit, such as berries, are not affected by ethylene, but Hazel has a life-extending product for them, too. Its BerryBrite is a proprietary blend of oils derived from herbs like dill and oregano that contain antimicrobial compounds that stop bacteria, mold and fungi.

The payoff: A packet of FruitBrite tucked into a 36-pound shipping container of bananas makes them last an extra two to three weeks, while a packet of BerryBrite in a shipping flat of strawberries keeps them from going bad six to 15 days longer than usual. "It varies from crop to crop, but typically we get somewhere between two and three times longer shelf life," says Aiden Mouat, co-founder and CEO of the two-year-old company.

Widespread use of Hazel's products could reduce food spoilage—a third of produce generally is wasted—and allow growers to ship fresh fruit farther. The additives cost about a penny per pound of treated produce.

Mouat, 30, assembled the Hazel team from Northwestern University, where he received his doctorate in chemistry in 2016. The company, named after one of co-founder and COO Adam Preslar's grandmothers, now is based at Illinois Institute of Technology.

Hazel was launched with a $100,000 small-business research grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and is up for additional funding this year. Last year, it won the top prize of $500,000 in the annual Clean Energy Trust Challenge. In March, Rhapsody Venture Partners, a Cambridge, Mass., firm that funds hard-science innovations, led a round of $800,000 in seed funding along with VentureWell and Valley Oak Investments.

Bernard Lupien, a general partner at Rhapsody, says Hazel already has an impressive list of customers, including shippers of avocados and melons. "Market fielding and acceptance has been much faster than most hard-science startups," he says.

Mouat projects Hazel will gross up to $2 million this year and should be profitable next year, when he predicts revenue will quadruple. By year-end, the seven-employee company also plans to hire four more workers and to insert its BerryBrite product into the clamshell containers berries are packaged in so they can last longer after consumers bring them home.

An Atlanta native whose father was a professor of comparative literature at Emory University, Mouat earned his bachelor's and master's degrees in chemistry from Emory. He attributes his interest in food to his mother, an IT professional, who taught him to cook from the age of 5. His favorite comfort food since his childhood has been "ants climbing trees," a Sichuan dish made from ground pork and bean thread noodles. "Cooking is just chemistry that you eat," he says.